Ligaya ng Panginoon Covenant Community ECLS September 2002

SESSION 3: Notes to Speakers and ECLS Team

What It Means To Be A Christian

OBJECTIVES:
2. To help enrich and deepen the participants’ appreciation of the Christian way of life
by imparting to them a proper understanding of what it means to be a Christian and
help them to set aside wrong concepts.
3. To inspire them to live out the Christian's redeemed life daily.

ESSENTIALS OF THIS TALK:

1. Many Christians are unable to live out their calling as Christians in a daily way
because of incomplete and/or faulty notions and expectations of being a Christian.
(i.e., set of beliefs and rituals, mere moral and humanitarian systems, the Christian
simply as a “nice person”.
2. The Gospel message summarized in the 4 Basic Truths:
 God loves you and wants you to live a full, happy life.
 Man is sinful and separated from God and therefore he cannot know God's
love fully and share in God’s life with others.
 Jesus Christ is the only one who can give you the power to live this life.
Through Him you can know God’s love and share in God’s life with others.
 You must accept Jesus into your own life as Lord and Savior.
3. The essence of Christianity is UNION WITH GOD, made possible through the death
and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
4. It is not enough to simply know these truths. We need to accept them and accept
Jesus as our Lord and savior.

COMMENTS ON THE PRESENTATION AND DYNAMICS OF THE SESSION

1. The tone of this session, if we are not careful, can sound like we are looking down
on people and some traditionally accepted practices. Our approach: be
compassionate in enriching their inadequate understanding of the Christian life.

2. In PART A: Following are the main points to present:

 Christianity is definitely more than just sets of doctrines and external

practices. These are meant to be statements of truths about God and our life
with God and some practices designed to enrich our Christian life. They are
incomplete unless what we believe in is translated in our lives (i.e. we base
our values and lives on them.)

 An improper understanding of the spirit behind the commandments of God

makes Christianity legalistic and sterile. These are guides to help us relate in
love and service to God and men.

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 What seems to be lacking in notions about Christianity today is the truth and
implication that Jesus is God and we have relate with God as our God and
Creator and Lord. Christianity’s essence is union with God. While this thought
has been presented in the session “Who Is Jesus Christ?”, the focus in this
session is to give them practical help in accepting Jesus as Lord.

3. In PART B: Use of visuals can be very helpful in the presentation.

4. In the Personal Testimony: Try to make the following two points into just one smooth
presentation rather than 2 separate testimonies.

 On one of the speaker’s own incomplete notion of Christianity, how he came to

the decision to set it aside, and how having this corrected made a difference in
his personal life.

 On what it means to accept Jesus -- to put Jesus at the center of his life; putting
Jesus at the "driver's seat" of his life. What is it like to know Jesus personally.

Among other things you might wish to share, say something about your changed
prayer life and the reality of God in prayer.

DISCUSSION STARTER
In living out the Christian life, what do you think are negative consequences of not having a
proper understanding of what it means to be Christian? What attitudes can be helpful in
striving to live a good Christian life?

SUGGESTED SONG(S) TO TEACH:

1. A New Commandment
2. We Belong To God

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Session 3: Expanded outline:

What It Means To Be A Christian

INTRODUCTION:
1. We are the only Christian country in this part of the globe, and yet, we see many
who profess to be Christians doing acts of injustice, dishonesty, immorality,
corruption, etc.
2. Superficially, one may point to “economic hard times,” or to sociological and political
trends as reasons for compromising their Christian values and even their faith.
3. But they can only be partially correct. For history has shown that true Christians
would rather die than give up their Christian values and faith.
4. Many Christians are unable to live out their calling as Christians in a daily way. One
key reason: Incomplete and/or faulty notions and expectations of being a Christian.
A. Misconceptions or Incomplete Notions About Christianity
1. Christianity is reduced to a set of beliefs, rituals and religious practices to be
accepted, be performed well and faithfully
a. Set of doctrines to be memorized and recited.
b. Knowing or reading a lot about God. (E.g. Apostles' Creed - remains on
intellectual level.)
Main Point: These practices are lacking in meaning unless they are experiences and
expressions of our faith/belief in God and not merely doing them as compliance.
2. Christianity is a mere moral system.
a. Set of do's and don'ts, of right and wrong, set of rules with accompanying
rewards and punishments. Legalistic in approach.
b. A suggested anecdote: People donating big amounts of money to the church to
compensate for and/or cancel the sinful things they are doing.
c. Goal is to avoid certain behaviors and those things that can make you go to hell.
Main Point: Our Christian faith is our life - we do or don't do certain things not because
the rule book says so but as an expression of our relationship with God and others.
3. Christianity is a mere social, humanitarian system.
a. Equates Christianity with humanitarianism: with activities promoting the interest
and welfare of people especially through the elimination of pain and suffering.
b. Social action, promoting clean and healthy environment, working for justice,
philanthropic projects, corporeal works of mercy.
Main point: These are good activities but being a Christian is more than doing these.
4. A Christian is someone who is always a “nice person.” I.e., always smiles, is friendly,
never gets angry and pleases everyone.
Main point: Being a nice person is a well appreciated personality trait but a Christian is
definitely more than just having a good personality.

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Summary Points: All of the above are not wrong in themselves but are incomplete
notions of what Christianity is because:
a. They are focused and dependent on man's abilities.
b. They are focused on actions and things.
c. Something is missing. Incomplete notion because it leaves out the deity of
Christ and limits Christianity to merely being a Good Samaritan.
B. What is Christianity? What does it mean to be a Christian? To answer that,
we need to understand the basic message of Jesus Christ. This summarized in what we
call the “Four Basic Truths"
TRUTH #1: God loves you and wants you to live a full, happy life .
 Jn 10:10 "I (Jesus) came that they may have life and have it abundantly."
TRUTH #2: Man is sinful and separated from God and therefore he cannot know
God's love fully and share in God’s life with others .
 Men are continually trying to reach God by their own efforts but are
unsuccessful: man-made philosophies and religions, drugs etc. (NOTE: No need
to elaborate this specific statement for it was tackled in previous presentations.)
 Rom 3:23 “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Sin involves
indifference to God; characterized by actively or passively rebelling against God.
 Rom 1:28 “Because men refuse to acknowledge God... they are full of all kinds
of wickedness, greed, and hate.” Man’s separation from God results in man’s
separation from man.
 Men cannot live together in love and peace unless there is first a spiritual change
in them which only God can produce. How can this happen? -- Truth # 3.
TRUTH #3: Jesus is the only one who can give you the power to live this life. Through
Him you can know God’s love and share in God’s life with others.
 Jn 3:16 “God so loved the world that He sent His only Son, that whoever
believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”
 Jn 14:16 "I am the way, the truth and the life: no man comes to the Father but
through me." But more is needed than just knowing these.
TRUTH #4: You must accept Jesus into your own life as Lord and Savior .
 Accepting Jesus into your life is more than just believing that He is God and died
for men; and more than just doing good works and following His moral teachings.
 It means entering into a personal relationship with Christ.
MAIN POINTS:
1. The essence of Christianity is UNION WITH GOD, made possible through the death
and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
2. It is a relationship initiated by God. He loved us first. 1Jn.4:10 God's idea not ours.
Eph 2:8 "I repeat, it is owing to His (Jesus Christ) favor that salvation is yours
through faith. This is not your own doing, it is God's gift; neither is it a reward for
anything you have accomplished, so let no one pride himself on it."
3. As Christians, we enter into the same relationship that Jesus has with His Father.

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a. When we willingly accept Jesus Christ, our identity changes and we become
sons and daughters of God. (Gal. 4:4-7)
b. What it means to accept Jesus Christ in your life.

E E

 Each circle represents man's life. The center of the circles represents the center
of the life -- the driver's seat, the point from which the life is controlled, around
which the life centers. Whoever or whatever is seated in the center is the person
or thing that controls the man's life. In most people's lives it is the SELF or EGO
that is the center. Sometimes it is another person, or drugs, or even some cause.
 There are many interests in each person's life -- family, work, art, etc. (the other
small circles). Christ may be one of the interests in this man's life. Or, Jesus may
be entirely outside of the life of the man. as is the case with someone who does
not seriously considers Jesus. A person like this does not experience God's
presence and love fully. He experiences a lack of goal and power, a lack of real
peace and joy. If he considers himself to be a Christian he finds his Christianity
empty and meaningless.
 To accept Jesus Christ into your life means to allow Him to take the center . You
make Him Lord of your life.
PERSONAL TESTIMONY (How having a proper understanding of Christian life made a
difference in your life ,how you accepted Jesus and how it is like know Jesus personally.
C. CONCLUDING WORDS.
1. Christianity is God's idea. He has some expectations on how it should be lived out.
This is important to keep in mind because God is the source of Christianity, its truths
are enduring and unchanging. They cannot be reduced or watered down to suit
man's fancy and convenience. We have to take the word of God as is and base our
life on it.
2. Our Father knows our needs.
a. "For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the Lord, plans for your
welfare, not woe, plans to give you a future full of hope. When you call to me,
when you go to pray to me, I will listen to you. When you look for me, you will
find me. Yes, when you seek me with all your heart." Jer. 29:11-13
b. He knows we need divine graces.
3. But how do we know these things? God said so! God does not lie! We can count
on Him. Put your lives now completely on God's hands and experience the
tremendous peace flow into your lives, your family.

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